Part 4
Consciousness returned as an unwelcome event some time later. Pain throbbed through his skull, down his face and a sticky, bloody mass at the bridge of his nose sent a sharp warning of 'do not touch' when carelessly explored by his clumsy, insensitive, fingers. Swearing he tried to gain his bearings only to awaken the agony of his dislocated knee as he tried to kneel. A movement to his side and a gentle voice eased his concern momentarily.
"Carter?" he croaked, his eyes trying to make out the shadow in the darkness.
"Yes, sir," she replied, placing her hand softly on his shoulder and easing him back to the floor.
"Whatcha doin' here?" he slurred, fighting the nausea generated by his pounding head.
"The Goa'uld found me sir, about an hour after you left. I got the impression they knew where to look, there was a terrified kid from the village with them…" her voice trailed off and she took an unsteady breath, "The Imperial Guard killed her as soon as they had me."
O'Neill fumbled, blindly, for her hand and gave it a careful squeeze, "Nothing you could do, Carter."
He felt rather than saw her nod.
"We were ringed up into a ship of some sort," Carter said more certainly, "You've been unconscious for about two hours. I don't think we have left orbit, at least I haven't felt the ship move, and we seem to be in a cell of some kind. No-one has been in or out since they put us here. I've done the best I can with your knee, the patella is back in place but it's going to hurt like crazy until Janet can do something better to support it..."she paused and he felt her bandaged hand brush his hair very briefly, "How's the head?"
"Excellent," he drawled sarcastically, "I can't see anything more than shadows and I think my nose is probably embedded in my brain tissue. Am I close?"
Despite herself Carter smiled, "Your nose is certainly broken, and you have two huge black eyes which, combined with the half-light in here, is probably why you can't see very much right now. I can try and clean up the blood but I can't promise to be gentle."
O'Neill groaned and let his head rock back onto the floor, "I think I am going to pass out again, Carter. Clean it up while I'm out of it, will ya?"
"Yes, sir," she said, watching as the slits of the colonel's eyes shut completely and his breathing became easier.
O'Neill's battle with consciousness continued for several more hours, with varying degrees of lucidity during each period of wakefulness. When he finally came too properly he found himself leaning against Carter, his head on her shoulder, her arm around him in a mixture of protectiveness and warmth. The Goa'uld had dropped the temperature in the cell to somewhere below freezing, he thought, as small ice crystals had begun to form in the moisture on the cell walls. The lights were on full too, he noted, as he opened the slits of his eyes his vision eventually focussing on Carter's exhausted, sleeping, face.
Without moving he inspected the sensations of his body. Cold was the first one, which was decidedly preferable to pain, which was the second prominent sensation. His right knee ached but not unbearably so, and his face still throbbed, but with less urgency. He was grateful for small improvements. Flexing his fingers and toes he was pleased to realise everything was functioning reasonably well, and if he tried hard he could see everything in the circular room through the slits of his eyes, no visible door, walls of bright light, a high ceiling. Bottom line, there was no obvious means of escape.
Listening hard O'Neill recognised the profound silence of a room insulated from all other sound, such perfect nothingness could never be achieved without a lot of hard work. His own breath held the only other sound in the room was the inhalation and exhalation of his second in command, both actions catching in her chest and rattling her lungs. He frowned, concerned for Carter's health, and regretted the movement as wrinkling the skin above his eyes caused a stab of pain. He flinched and Carter woke instantly.
"It's alright, Carter," O'Neill rasped, he had not accounted for how dry his throat was.
Carter withdrew her arm from around him, both missing the contact immediately. She straightened herself and wriggled her stiff fingers carefully. The burn gel had long since worn off and the weeping of the wounds had begun to seep through the dressings. Around her knuckles, where she had forced them to bend to re-align O'Neill's kneecap, yellow stains were now evident. The colonel caught her hands, feeling the excessive heat that emanated from her palms and squinted at them critically, then checked the dressings on her arms which were still firmly attached. Neither of them passed comment. There was precious little they could do to remedy that part of the situation.
"How long was I out?" O'Neill asked as he let go of her.
"I'm not sure, sir. They dropped the temperature at least an hour ago, and the lights have been on and off at various intervals. I couldn't keep track of time."
"Anyone been in?"
Carter shook her head, "No, I haven't heard anything or seen anyone since we got here. I had hoped we were still in orbit but I can't be sure now. There is some kind of dampening field in operation. The rest of the ship could be at DEFCON 1 and we wouldn't have the first idea."
"I don't think the Goa'uld have DEFCON, Major," O'Neill said dryly, "But I concur. Escape doesn't seem to be an option at the moment, so the best we can do is sit tight, get our strength back, and be ready for the first opportunity that arises."
The major nodded in agreement, "How's your knee holding up? Do you think you can stand?"
O'Neill probed his leg with his numb fingers and decided the kneecap was where it was supposed to be, with a reasonable amount of inflamation in the area.
"I can run when I need to, at least the cold will reduce the swelling."
Carter hugged her knees to her chest tightly and said nothing.
"What do we know about the Imperial Guard?" O'Neill asked, attempting to rouse Carter from her reverie.
"Not a great deal, sir," she answered, "I remember from Teal'c's briefings that they serve Moloc, but we have never encountered him in person. I would suggest that he is not here. If he were I would expect us to have been granted an audience."
"So what are they going to do with us?" O'Neill pondered aloud, "They either cart us off to his Goa'uldship to face questioning, or they try and get the answers they want out of us here. If they were going to kill is they'd have done it already. But if we haven't engaged him previously how do his minions know we are worthy of capture or that we may have information he is interested in?"
Carter got to her feet and began pacing as she thought through O'Neill's question.
"As you said before, Colonel, our reputation precedes us. We already know that Apophis found out enough about earth to simulate a SGC training camp. Even scraps of information could work their way into the hands of the lesser system lords, and as far as we know we are the only humans venturing through stargates giving the Goa'uld a bloody nose from time to time. Basically we wouldn't be hard to identify. If Moloc has effective spies in his camp, and we have no reason to suppose he wouldn't, then theoretically he should know quite a lot about our presence. He either considers us a threat, or it is possible that he believes we may offer an alliance against the other Goa'uld allowing him the opportunity to usurp power from a greater system lord if he was able to convince us to either, give up tactical information or join his campaign."
"Sweet," O'Neill muttered stretching his legs across the floor, "So when we don't join his party he kills us. Do we have any bargaining chips?"
"I don't think so, sir," Carter stopped pacing, "Our best hope is that General Hammond sends several SG teams after us, or that we provide our own means of escape. Currently I am not even sure where the door is to even attempt it. I don't believe we have even been held in a Goa'uld cell of the design. The walls are smooth, and it's completely circular…" as Carter trailed off he saw the lights flicker on in her eyes in a moment of inspiration.
"Carter?" he coaxed in his best Colonel's voice.
"There are no doors because we were ringed into this room. The only way in or out is through the rings."
O'Neill pulled a face, "You can't be serious? We are stuck here until someone rings us out again?"
Carter shook her head, "Not necessarily. Every ring device we have come across so far has had a control panel. We just have to find it."
"On blank walls?"
Carter nodded, "The device will be secreted somewhere. Of course if we scour the walls and the rings are activated from above…"
"…we will be crushed under them," O'Neill concluded helpfully, "Well I am damned if I am leaning against this wall any longer. I don't want to look like road kill."
The major reached over and helped the colonel to his feet. He stood awkwardly on his damaged knee but made no complaint.
"We are assuming, of course, that there is more than one destination possible through the ring system."
Carter nodded glumly, her eyes already scanning the room for a control panel, "It is possible for one ring device to intercept the path of another, but it requires accuracy and the knowledge of when the device is to be used, and by whom. It's how Teal'c rescued us from Sokar. It is unlikely that anyone will be looking for such a matter stream this time. If we can find the control panel I might be able to decipher it well enough to re-route ourselves somewhere other than where we came from, and I am not sure what happens if we simply try to ring back to the planet and find we aren't in orbit…"
"I'm going to guess that's not going to be pretty, Carter," O'Neill grumbled, his own eyes running up and down the walls for any indication of something that wasn't quite as it seemed.
"It could simply be that it is impossible to ring out if there is nowhere to go," Carter argued, hopefully.
"Find the panel, figure it out," O'Neill ordered.
Working in opposite directions they moved slowly around the room examining every brightly lit pane of crystal for a possible control panel. They had circled the room twice before frustration surfaced and O'Neill softly thudded his forehead against the wall, having momentarily forgotten his injury. Exhaling deeply, his head still leant against the wall, he watched his breath freeze in strange patterns across the surface. Perplexed, he repeated the exhalation a little to the left and saw a different pattern emerge.
"Hey, Carter, take a look at this will you?"
The major crossed from the other side of the cell and stared at the fading pattern. The symbols were familiar, Goa'uld writing, and although her grasp of the language was far short of Daniel's Carter recognised enough of the symbols to feel hopeful. As she exhaled onto the wall another set of symbols appeared, rising up from the surface in response to the heat from their breath.
"This is fascinating," Carter exclaimed, enthused, "The symbols on this wall are actually hidden by the temperature. That's why they have made it so cold in here, so we can't escape. All we need to do is warm up enough of the surface to find controls."
O'Neill pressed his hand to the wall but discovered his skin was too cold to create the same results.
"So we have to huff and puff, and blow the house down?" he joked.
"We can't sustain the patterns long enough to activate them that way," Carter said thoughtfully, "Sir, help me get these dressing off."
"What?" O'Neill's face took on a confused glare.
"The burns on my hands are infected, sir, and that means they are giving off more heat than your skin. It might be enough to activate the control panel."
He paused a moment before nodding his acquiescence. Unwinding the bandages carefully he realised her hands were blistered, swollen and hot. Raw skin shone bright red and serum oozed unpleasantly across the back of both her hands. Her palms and finger tips were smothered with burst blisters and lose skin. O'Neill had seen soldiers face far worse burns and survive without a scar but with Carter he found he had to force himself to remain impassive at the sight. He felt Carter wobble a little as she tried to remain composed, his hand found her elbow and kept her on her feet.
"Easy there, Carter," he said gently, "You get us out of here and Janet will have you patched up in no time."
She nodded, feeling a little nauseous and trying to overcome it.
"It looks worse than it is," Carter managed to sound almost convincing as she straightened herself up and placed her injured hands tentatively on the wall.
O'Neill could tell from her posture that every touch of the wall sent shots of pain through Carter's body. With her back to him he closed his eyes briefly and swallowed his natural response to pull her away and save her from the agony. Inch by inch Carter's plan to unveil the symbols worked until she had managed to locate the required panel.
"This is it, sir," she said stiffly, her now bleeding hands hovering over the symbols required to summon the rings, "I can't re-root the device but I can reactivate it. All I can say is it looks like it is still connected to some other rings, somewhere else."
The colonel simply nodded accepting the risks and doing his best to ignore the bloody prints on the wall, "Let's do this then, Carter."
The major steeled herself and pressed firmly on the control panel before stepping back to stand side by side with her commanding officer as the transportation rings rapidly descended.